NCST summons to YouTube for offensive Jarawa clips

In a bid to protect their cultural identity, a Jarawa policy has been framed by the administration.

NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes has summoned YouTube officials for non-compliance of its directive to remove all videos on the Jarawas — a vulnerable tribe of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands — from the video-sharing platform. The constitutional body under the tribal affairs ministry had directed Google-owned YouTube to remove the videos in July, as first reported by ET in its July 8 edition. The commission had pointed out that the videos did not portray the indigenous group in a good light. NCST is piqued as the videos are still online.

“We have summoned YouTube to explain why there has been inadequate compliance to our July orders. We would like to have their viewpoint about the difficulties they are facing in removing clearly objectionable videos,” NCST secretary Raghav Chandra told ET. YouTube has removed “some videos” but the exact numbers are not available with the commission since the company has not sent an action-taken report, Chandra said.

When contacted, a Google spokesperson said, “YouTube has community guidelines outlining what content is allowed on the site, and we review flagged videos against those policies. In addition, we also respond to legal requests to remove content that breaks local laws. In all cases, we restrict access to a video only after a thorough review to determine if the request meets both the letter and spirit of the law.

Where content does not break local laws or violate our community guidelines, it will remain on the site.” NCST pointed out that videos on the Jarawas were offensive and amounted to outraging their modesty without their knowledge. The Jarawas and four other tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have been lassified as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).

With a current population of 480, the Jarawas live in parts of the South Andaman and Middle Andaman Islands and have largely shunned interaction with outsiders. In a bid to protect their cultural identity, a Jarawa policy has been framed by the administration. The Jarawa policy of December 21, 2004 prohibits visits to tribal settlements.